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You're right. THe round or "D" shaped prong is the ground which is wired to the green or bare wire. THe "L" shaped prong on the bottom is the neutral which is wired to the white. The neutral is code now to allow dryer manufacturers to elimnate having to put transformers in the dryers to step down to 120V to run the electronic circuits in the dryer. As mentioned before, the ground is not a normal current carrying conductor whereas the neutral is expected to carry current. In fact, wiring the ground to neutral or neutral to ground can cause you to get shocked by touching any grounded appliance as this would put a 120V potential on the ground circuit which is wired to the external case of every UL listed appliance.

BTW, 8 ga wire is extraordinary overkill. This welder will be running around 20 amps at low duty cycle. 12 ga is more than adequate, unless your extension cord is 100 or more feet long, in which case you may consider 10 ga to minimize voltage drop.

And no, wiring the neutral to ground will not cause 120V to be present on the chassis of the appliance. It will cause maybe 5 VAC (give or take a few) to be present at high loads. The only way 120V would be present is if the ground was cut in the box.

But you will feel 5 VAC and under certain circumstances it can kill, especially the elderly and those predisposed to certain cardiac arrhythmia.

Last edited by Bodybagger; 03-30-2010 at 05:34 PM.

80% of failures are from 20% of causesNever compromise your principles today in the name of furthering them in the future."All I ever wanted was an honest week's pay for an honest day's work." -Sgt. Bilko"We are generally better persuaded by reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others." -Pascal"Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything." -Pascal